Not again – We cannot have religion and race based parties to lead the opposition.

It is the most ludicrous suggestion if ever I heard of such to either have the Muslim Congress or the Tamil National Alliance as the Opposition Party from which the leader of the Opposition is chosen. Are people of this country out of their tiny minds, as it just aggravates racial divides in the Country that is making all sorts of strides to rid itself of its racial segregation.

We MUST therefore end all race and religion based parties in the long-term, and to that end not encourage this separatism within. The problem with a National Government is that only those parties within the Govt. coalition will be in the Govt. and those that are NOT are technically in the opposition. If there is a party that has the largest number of seats then they lay claim to the Leader of the Opposition status, which in 1970 meant that the Tamils got that status and the rest we know is history.

Do not forget that at the 1970 general election, the UNP still had the highest polled votes in the election, but due to the distribution of those votes, were decimated in parliament with fewer members than the Tamil parties that had less than 10% of the votes of the UNP but had more MPS the most anomalous of situations in the first past the post system of Govt.

So even the JVP that has hardly any parliamentary representation, though they have a greater number of voters for them than the Tamil Parties put together, will be on the sidelines, when technically they should form the Leader of the Opposition.

It is in this background that some accommodation needs to be made in this government to rectify this anomalous situation.

Anyway it is time we have a different approach to what it means to be an opposition, and with this new government where we don’t know who is who, and the confusion reigns, then having a small minority representing the opposition is only bound to inflame people’s already passionate feelings.

Actually this word National Govt. is another word that is hard to understand where the PM wants all parties involved, but then without an opposition, then who represents the views of people in the Country opposed to the National Government will not be presented by either the JVP or any of the small parties, as they represent a very jaundiced and prejudiced view of a very small segment of the population.

I was told that the speaker is consulting texts of British Parliamentary procedure to determine how to approach this subject, but I don’t know if there is precedent that can be used. I am not certain that there was a National Government in wartime, but that is a completely special case as the circumstances warrant.

Supposing the Mahinda faction, namely the rogues of the previous regime, who will NOT get a ticket, form their own breakaway party, they will have a representation of about 50MPs from which they can form the opposition as in official till the next elections. This would be the most sensible compromise under the circumstances. A lot will depend on the 19^th Amendment passing on Friday, 10^th April, as if it does not pass the parliament will be dissolved.